ons he has made in the New World, which have set at rest a
great many disputed points in geography, mineralogy, and zoology,
concerning that interesting and, in a great degree, unknown part of
the world, and extended in a proportional degree the boundaries of
knowledge regarding it. Nor have his labours been less important in
collecting the most valuable statistical information regarding the
Spanish provinces of those vast regions, especially the condition of
the Indian, negro, and mulatto race which exist within them, and the
amount of the precious metals annually raised from their mines;
subjects of vast importance to Great Britain, and especially its
colonial and commercial interests, but which have hitherto been in an
unaccountable manner neglected, even by those whose interests and
fortunes were entirely wound up in the changes connected with these
vital subjects.

The remainder of Baron Humboldt's life has been chiefly devoted to the
various and important publications, in which he has embodied the fruit
of his vast and extensive researches in the New World. In many of
these he has been assisted by M. Aime Bonpland, who, his companion in
literary labour as in the danger and fatigues of travelling, has, with
the generosity of a really great mind, been content to diminish,
perhaps destroy, his prospect of individual celebrity, by associating
himself with the labours Of his illustrious friend. Pursued even in
mature years by the desire of fame, the thirst for still greater
achievements, which belongs to minds of the heroic cast, whether in
war or science, he conceived, at a subsequent period, the design of
visiting the upper provinces of India and the Himalaya range. After
having ascended higher than man had yet done on the elevated ridges of
the New World, he was consumed with a thirst to surmount the still
more lofty summits of the Old, which have remained in solitary and
unapproachable grandeur since the waves of the Deluge first receded
from their sides. But the East India Company, within whose dominions,
or at least beneath whose influence, the highest ridges of the
Himalaya are situated, gave no countenance to the design, and even, it
is said, refused liberty to the immortal Naturalist to visit their
extensive territories. Whatever opinion we may form on the liberality
or wisdom of this resolution, considered with reference to the
interests, physical, moral, and political, of British India, it is not
to be regr